This book draws from a foundation of positive psychology and recently emerging positive organizational behavior (POB). Its purpose is to introduce the untapped human resource capacity of ...
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This book draws from a foundation of positive psychology and recently emerging positive organizational behavior (POB). Its purpose is to introduce the untapped human resource capacity of psychological capital, or simply PsyCap. This PsyCap goes beyond traditionally recognized human and social capital and must meet the scientific criteria of theory, research, and valid measurement. To distinguish from other constructs in positive psychology and organizational behavior, to be included in PsyCap the resource capacity must also be “state-like” and thus open to development (as opposed to momentary states or fixed traits) and have performance impact. The positive psychological resource capacities that meet these PsyCap criteria — efficacy (confidence), hope, optimism, and resilience — are covered in separate chapters. These four resource capacities are conceptually and empirically distinct, but also have underlying common processes for striving to succeed and when in combination contribute to a higher-order, core construct of psychological capital. Besides these four, other potential positive constructs such as creativity, wisdom, well being, flow, humor, gratitude, forgiveness, emotional intelligence, spirituality, authenticity, and courage are covered in Chapters 6 and 7. The concluding Chapter 8 summarizes and presents the research demonstrating the performance impact of PsyCap, the PsyCap questionnaire (PCQ) for measurement and the PsyCap Intervention (PCI) for development. Utility analysis indicates that investing in the development of PsyCap can result in a very substantial return. In total, this book provides the theory, research, measure, and method of application for the new resource of Psychological Capital that can be developed and sustained for competitive advantage.Less

Psychological Capital : Developing the Human Competitive Edge

Fred LuthansCarolyn M. YoussefBruce J. Avolio

Published in print: 2006-09-21

This book draws from a foundation of positive psychology and recently emerging positive organizational behavior (POB). Its purpose is to introduce the untapped human resource capacity of psychological capital, or simply PsyCap. This PsyCap goes beyond traditionally recognized human and social capital and must meet the scientific criteria of theory, research, and valid measurement. To distinguish from other constructs in positive psychology and organizational behavior, to be included in PsyCap the resource capacity must also be “state-like” and thus open to development (as opposed to momentary states or fixed traits) and have performance impact. The positive psychological resource capacities that meet these PsyCap criteria — efficacy (confidence), hope, optimism, and resilience — are covered in separate chapters. These four resource capacities are conceptually and empirically distinct, but also have underlying common processes for striving to succeed and when in combination contribute to a higher-order, core construct of psychological capital. Besides these four, other potential positive constructs such as creativity, wisdom, well being, flow, humor, gratitude, forgiveness, emotional intelligence, spirituality, authenticity, and courage are covered in Chapters 6 and 7. The concluding Chapter 8 summarizes and presents the research demonstrating the performance impact of PsyCap, the PsyCap questionnaire (PCQ) for measurement and the PsyCap Intervention (PCI) for development. Utility analysis indicates that investing in the development of PsyCap can result in a very substantial return. In total, this book provides the theory, research, measure, and method of application for the new resource of Psychological Capital that can be developed and sustained for competitive advantage.

This book is a response to the growing disenchantment in the Western world with contemporary life. It provides rationally justified answers to questions about the meaning of life, the basis of ...
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This book is a response to the growing disenchantment in the Western world with contemporary life. It provides rationally justified answers to questions about the meaning of life, the basis of morality, the contingencies of human lives, the prevalence of evil, the nature and extent of human responsibility, and the sources of values we prize. It offers a realistic view of the human condition that rejects both facile optimism and gloomy pessimism; acknowledges that we are vulnerable to contingencies we cannot fully control; defends a humanistic understanding of our condition; recognizes that the values worth pursuing are plural, often conflicting, and that there are many reasonable conceptions of well‐being. It emphasizes the importance of facing the fact that man's inhumanity to man is widespread. It rejects as simple‐minded both the view that human nature is basically good and that it is basically bad, and argues that our well‐being depends on coping with the complex truth that human nature is basically complicated. It argues that the scheme of things is indifferent to our fortunes and that we can rely only on our own resources to make what we can of our lives.Less

The Human Condition

John Kekes

Published in print: 2010-08-05

This book is a response to the growing disenchantment in the Western world with contemporary life. It provides rationally justified answers to questions about the meaning of life, the basis of morality, the contingencies of human lives, the prevalence of evil, the nature and extent of human responsibility, and the sources of values we prize. It offers a realistic view of the human condition that rejects both facile optimism and gloomy pessimism; acknowledges that we are vulnerable to contingencies we cannot fully control; defends a humanistic understanding of our condition; recognizes that the values worth pursuing are plural, often conflicting, and that there are many reasonable conceptions of well‐being. It emphasizes the importance of facing the fact that man's inhumanity to man is widespread. It rejects as simple‐minded both the view that human nature is basically good and that it is basically bad, and argues that our well‐being depends on coping with the complex truth that human nature is basically complicated. It argues that the scheme of things is indifferent to our fortunes and that we can rely only on our own resources to make what we can of our lives.

Being evil by nature we ought nevertheless to become good; and so we can. Kant's philosophy is supposed to give us grounds for hope in an “afterlife”, when we can be good, or at least better, and ...
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Being evil by nature we ought nevertheless to become good; and so we can. Kant's philosophy is supposed to give us grounds for hope in an “afterlife”, when we can be good, or at least better, and when happiness will be proportioned to virtue as the highest good. Yet it remains unclear how to understand the temporal relation of this present, sensible life and the afterlife. Some of Kant's reflections suggest that heaven and hell may belong to the intelligible world we already occupy. Because the world would have been created for a moral purpose, and because the highest good is a just reward, we have rational grounds for hope in an afterlife.Less

Grounds for Hope

Richard McCarty

Published in print: 2009-06-18

Being evil by nature we ought nevertheless to become good; and so we can. Kant's philosophy is supposed to give us grounds for hope in an “afterlife”, when we can be good, or at least better, and when happiness will be proportioned to virtue as the highest good. Yet it remains unclear how to understand the temporal relation of this present, sensible life and the afterlife. Some of Kant's reflections suggest that heaven and hell may belong to the intelligible world we already occupy. Because the world would have been created for a moral purpose, and because the highest good is a just reward, we have rational grounds for hope in an afterlife.

This chapter draws from the considerable theory and research of C. Rick Snyder to define PsyCap hope in terms of both agency (willpower) and pathways (waypower) to accomplish goals. After summarizing ...
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This chapter draws from the considerable theory and research of C. Rick Snyder to define PsyCap hope in terms of both agency (willpower) and pathways (waypower) to accomplish goals. After summarizing research on the relationship between hope and performance, major attention of the chapter is given to developing hope in today's managers and employees through goal setting, stretch goals, stepping, involvement, reward systems, resources, strategic alignment, and training. The balance of the chapter examines the characteristics of hopeful organizational leaders, employees, and overall organizations. The concluding sections explore potential pitfalls and directions for future research and practice.Less

PsyCap Hope : The Will and the Way

Fred LuthansCarolyn M. YoussefBruce J. Avolio

Published in print: 2006-09-21

This chapter draws from the considerable theory and research of C. Rick Snyder to define PsyCap hope in terms of both agency (willpower) and pathways (waypower) to accomplish goals. After summarizing research on the relationship between hope and performance, major attention of the chapter is given to developing hope in today's managers and employees through goal setting, stretch goals, stepping, involvement, reward systems, resources, strategic alignment, and training. The balance of the chapter examines the characteristics of hopeful organizational leaders, employees, and overall organizations. The concluding sections explore potential pitfalls and directions for future research and practice.

Friedrich Hölderlin's biography, his figurative life, may be better known than his poems. He is syntactically difficult sometimes too, and moves in his poetic thinking through unapparent connections. ...
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Friedrich Hölderlin's biography, his figurative life, may be better known than his poems. He is syntactically difficult sometimes too, and moves in his poetic thinking through unapparent connections. Then the sheer length of many of his best poems is off-putting, which is why the Diotima poems written in Frankfurt and Homburg are a good place to begin. The purity of his poetry and the urgency of his demands, if they do not wholly engage one, may actually be wearisome or repellent. His critique of wrong living is exact and ungainsayable. His political hopes and disappointment look more and more representative. He was a deeply religious poet, whose fundamental tenet is nevertheless absence and the threat of meaninglessness. He had a Romantic hope that the mind and the poetic imagination might make meaning; and the Romantic dread of solipsism. His poetics are a theory of perpetual onward movement, and his poems realize it.Less

Conclusion

David Constantine

Published in print: 1988-06-30

Friedrich Hölderlin's biography, his figurative life, may be better known than his poems. He is syntactically difficult sometimes too, and moves in his poetic thinking through unapparent connections. Then the sheer length of many of his best poems is off-putting, which is why the Diotima poems written in Frankfurt and Homburg are a good place to begin. The purity of his poetry and the urgency of his demands, if they do not wholly engage one, may actually be wearisome or repellent. His critique of wrong living is exact and ungainsayable. His political hopes and disappointment look more and more representative. He was a deeply religious poet, whose fundamental tenet is nevertheless absence and the threat of meaninglessness. He had a Romantic hope that the mind and the poetic imagination might make meaning; and the Romantic dread of solipsism. His poetics are a theory of perpetual onward movement, and his poems realize it.

Maintaining dignity for patients approaching death is a core principle of palliative care. Turning that principle into ways of guiding care at the end-of-life, however, can be a complicated and ...
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Maintaining dignity for patients approaching death is a core principle of palliative care. Turning that principle into ways of guiding care at the end-of-life, however, can be a complicated and daunting task. Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov, an international leader in palliative care, has conducted groundbreaking research on the issue of dignity and palliative care. His findings are beginning to change the way people think about and approach care for the terminally ill. Dignity Therapy is a novel, individualized, brief psychological intervention, designed specifically to address many of the psychological, existential and spiritual challenges that patients and their families face as they grapple with the reality of life drawing to a close. This therapeutic approach, based on years of Chochinov and his team's research, has been tested on patients with advanced illnesses in various countries worldwide. Many palliative care programs are starting to incorporate Dignity Therapy into the range of services offered dying patients and their families. This enthusiastic uptake of Dignity Therapy speaks to some universal aspects of being human; to be alive means to experience being vulnerable and being mortal. Dignity Therapy offers a way of preserving meaning, purpose and hope for patients approaching death. The benefits of this approach for patients and families have been demonstrated in various studies in diverse settings. Dignity Therapy: Final Words for Final Days introduces readers to this pioneering and innovative work, illustrating how Dignity Therapy can change end-of-life experience for those about to die and those who will grieve their passing.Less

Dignity Therapy : Final Words for Final Days

Harvey Max Chochinov

Published in print: 2012-01-04

Maintaining dignity for patients approaching death is a core principle of palliative care. Turning that principle into ways of guiding care at the end-of-life, however, can be a complicated and daunting task. Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov, an international leader in palliative care, has conducted groundbreaking research on the issue of dignity and palliative care. His findings are beginning to change the way people think about and approach care for the terminally ill. Dignity Therapy is a novel, individualized, brief psychological intervention, designed specifically to address many of the psychological, existential and spiritual challenges that patients and their families face as they grapple with the reality of life drawing to a close. This therapeutic approach, based on years of Chochinov and his team's research, has been tested on patients with advanced illnesses in various countries worldwide. Many palliative care programs are starting to incorporate Dignity Therapy into the range of services offered dying patients and their families. This enthusiastic uptake of Dignity Therapy speaks to some universal aspects of being human; to be alive means to experience being vulnerable and being mortal. Dignity Therapy offers a way of preserving meaning, purpose and hope for patients approaching death. The benefits of this approach for patients and families have been demonstrated in various studies in diverse settings. Dignity Therapy: Final Words for Final Days introduces readers to this pioneering and innovative work, illustrating how Dignity Therapy can change end-of-life experience for those about to die and those who will grieve their passing.

After the end of the Cold War, many in the West viewed Africa as a testing ground for the solidarist argument that sovereignty was no longer an absolute principle and that the international community ...
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After the end of the Cold War, many in the West viewed Africa as a testing ground for the solidarist argument that sovereignty was no longer an absolute principle and that the international community could intervene to protect individual from human rights violations. This argument seems particularly challenging in the African context, given the continental leadership’s historic commitment to territorial integrity and non-intervention. However, as the author shows, African leaders from 1945 to 1990 were largely upholding the pluralist international norms of the time. In other words, the case for humanitarian intervention – and the problems posed by the practice – are not region-specific. The early 1990s, during which the United Nations intervened in Somalia, seemed to confirm the solidarist position. However, the failure to intervene in Rwanda in 1994, and the more recent experience of interventions in Sierra Leone, present a more mixed picture. Humanitarian intervention remains a controversial practice because of its coercive means, and its tendency to attribute blame or responsibility in what are often very complex civil conflicts.Less

Humanitarian Intervention and International Society: Lessons from Africa

James Mayall

Published in print: 2003-12-18

After the end of the Cold War, many in the West viewed Africa as a testing ground for the solidarist argument that sovereignty was no longer an absolute principle and that the international community could intervene to protect individual from human rights violations. This argument seems particularly challenging in the African context, given the continental leadership’s historic commitment to territorial integrity and non-intervention. However, as the author shows, African leaders from 1945 to 1990 were largely upholding the pluralist international norms of the time. In other words, the case for humanitarian intervention – and the problems posed by the practice – are not region-specific. The early 1990s, during which the United Nations intervened in Somalia, seemed to confirm the solidarist position. However, the failure to intervene in Rwanda in 1994, and the more recent experience of interventions in Sierra Leone, present a more mixed picture. Humanitarian intervention remains a controversial practice because of its coercive means, and its tendency to attribute blame or responsibility in what are often very complex civil conflicts.

The scientific world recognizes the Anthropocene, where the human hand appears to overcome natural cycles of energy, chemical processes, and land use. We may be approaching planetary boundaries of ...
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The scientific world recognizes the Anthropocene, where the human hand appears to overcome natural cycles of energy, chemical processes, and land use. We may be approaching planetary boundaries of natural tolerance, though these may be more regional than local. Yet the floors of any safe operating space need to offer scope for redistributing dignity, income, opportunity, social rights, and capabilities in a world of limiting ceilings. This is a difficult message to deliver in a time of unprecedented austerity and unemployment, with reducing public expenditures, falling real wealth, and rising household costs. Three scenarios are offered: more of the same with an inbuilt political and technological lock-in; a mix of resilience adaptations in a wide range of institutions and technologies along with associated social value shifts as crises deepen and become more observable; and a full-throated transformation to a more socially just and ecologically robust planet based on well-being and betterment, and the profound role of investing in social capital, capability building, and individual and collective flourishing. But this vision may not be possible for the very reason that tipping points will overwhelm us when we have no learnt capacities to accommodate and to avoid.Less

Into a Precarious Future

Tim O’RiordanTim Lenton

Published in print: 2013-08-22

The scientific world recognizes the Anthropocene, where the human hand appears to overcome natural cycles of energy, chemical processes, and land use. We may be approaching planetary boundaries of natural tolerance, though these may be more regional than local. Yet the floors of any safe operating space need to offer scope for redistributing dignity, income, opportunity, social rights, and capabilities in a world of limiting ceilings. This is a difficult message to deliver in a time of unprecedented austerity and unemployment, with reducing public expenditures, falling real wealth, and rising household costs. Three scenarios are offered: more of the same with an inbuilt political and technological lock-in; a mix of resilience adaptations in a wide range of institutions and technologies along with associated social value shifts as crises deepen and become more observable; and a full-throated transformation to a more socially just and ecologically robust planet based on well-being and betterment, and the profound role of investing in social capital, capability building, and individual and collective flourishing. But this vision may not be possible for the very reason that tipping points will overwhelm us when we have no learnt capacities to accommodate and to avoid.

The importance of specification of human actions in Aquinas becomes clearer when one recognizes the indispensable role that human actions play in his moral theory as a whole. For Aquinas, human ...
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The importance of specification of human actions in Aquinas becomes clearer when one recognizes the indispensable role that human actions play in his moral theory as a whole. For Aquinas, human actions come to be through a human agent’s free self-determination; a human agent has mastery over these actions and bears responsibility for them. The goal of all human life is happiness, and this consists in a perpetual human action of knowing God ‘as he is’ in heaven. In this life, a person can share in the happiness found in God — though imperfectly — by the human actions of hope, faith, contemplation, and charity. Created goods can contribute to temporal happiness in their own way, so long as the human actions by which these goods are used or enjoyed accord with God’s will.Less

Human Actions and Aquinas's Moral Theory

Joseph Pilsner

Published in print: 2006-04-01

The importance of specification of human actions in Aquinas becomes clearer when one recognizes the indispensable role that human actions play in his moral theory as a whole. For Aquinas, human actions come to be through a human agent’s free self-determination; a human agent has mastery over these actions and bears responsibility for them. The goal of all human life is happiness, and this consists in a perpetual human action of knowing God ‘as he is’ in heaven. In this life, a person can share in the happiness found in God — though imperfectly — by the human actions of hope, faith, contemplation, and charity. Created goods can contribute to temporal happiness in their own way, so long as the human actions by which these goods are used or enjoyed accord with God’s will.

This chapter focuses on Thérèse's stature as a theologian. Thérèse of Lisieux became a doctor of the church in the centenary year of her death, 1997. She stands with only two other women in this ...
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This chapter focuses on Thérèse's stature as a theologian. Thérèse of Lisieux became a doctor of the church in the centenary year of her death, 1997. She stands with only two other women in this position: Teresa of Avila, so declared in 1970 with Catherine of Siena. The criteria for this exalting appointment center upon writings that reflect profound learning and deep sanctity so as to instruct the faithful in future generations. Thérèse did not just much teach Christian doctrine she embodied Christian life. She was not a souffleur of Christianity but someone who loved Christ and could see Christ in others. She could do so only in her weakness and littleness and that is what so oddly and surely proclaims her magnificence.Less

Perfecta Caritas : Notes for a Theology of Thérèse

Thomas R. Nevin

Published in print: 2006-11-01

This chapter focuses on Thérèse's stature as a theologian. Thérèse of Lisieux became a doctor of the church in the centenary year of her death, 1997. She stands with only two other women in this position: Teresa of Avila, so declared in 1970 with Catherine of Siena. The criteria for this exalting appointment center upon writings that reflect profound learning and deep sanctity so as to instruct the faithful in future generations. Thérèse did not just much teach Christian doctrine she embodied Christian life. She was not a souffleur of Christianity but someone who loved Christ and could see Christ in others. She could do so only in her weakness and littleness and that is what so oddly and surely proclaims her magnificence.

There are pragmatic theistic arguments different from Pascal's Wager. Some of these pragmatic arguments are found in James Beattie, J. S. Mill, William James, and Jules Lachelier. Some of these ...
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There are pragmatic theistic arguments different from Pascal's Wager. Some of these pragmatic arguments are found in James Beattie, J. S. Mill, William James, and Jules Lachelier. Some of these arguments support the propriety of hoping that theism is true, while others are arguments in support of theistic belief being rational. The permissibility conditions of hope differ from those of belief, and that is a topic of this chapter.Less

God, Hope, and Evidence

Jeff Jordan

Published in print: 2006-10-26

There are pragmatic theistic arguments different from Pascal's Wager. Some of these pragmatic arguments are found in James Beattie, J. S. Mill, William James, and Jules Lachelier. Some of these arguments support the propriety of hoping that theism is true, while others are arguments in support of theistic belief being rational. The permissibility conditions of hope differ from those of belief, and that is a topic of this chapter.

What exactly is hope and how does it influence our decisions? This book presents a novel account of hope, the motivational resources it presupposes, and its function in our practical lives. The book ...
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What exactly is hope and how does it influence our decisions? This book presents a novel account of hope, the motivational resources it presupposes, and its function in our practical lives. The book contends that hoping for an outcome means treating certain feelings, plans, and imaginings as justified, and that hope thereby involves sophisticated reflective and conceptual capacities. The book develops this original perspective on hope—what it calls the “incorporation analysis”—in contrast to the two dominant philosophical conceptions of hope: the orthodox definition, where hoping for an outcome is simply desiring it while thinking it possible, and agent-centered views, where hoping for an outcome is setting oneself to pursue it. In exploring how hope influences our decisions, the book establishes that it is not always a positive motivational force and can render us complacent. It also examines the relationship between hope and faith, both religious and secular, and identifies a previously unnoted form of hope: normative or interpersonal hope. When we place normative hope in people, we relate to them as responsible agents and aspire for them to overcome challenges arising from situation or character. Demonstrating that hope merits rigorous philosophical investigation, both in its own right and in virtue of what it reveals about the nature of human emotion and motivation, the book offers an original, sustained look at a largely neglected topic in philosophy.Less

How We Hope : A Moral Psychology

Adrienne M. Martin

Published in print: 2013-12-22

What exactly is hope and how does it influence our decisions? This book presents a novel account of hope, the motivational resources it presupposes, and its function in our practical lives. The book contends that hoping for an outcome means treating certain feelings, plans, and imaginings as justified, and that hope thereby involves sophisticated reflective and conceptual capacities. The book develops this original perspective on hope—what it calls the “incorporation analysis”—in contrast to the two dominant philosophical conceptions of hope: the orthodox definition, where hoping for an outcome is simply desiring it while thinking it possible, and agent-centered views, where hoping for an outcome is setting oneself to pursue it. In exploring how hope influences our decisions, the book establishes that it is not always a positive motivational force and can render us complacent. It also examines the relationship between hope and faith, both religious and secular, and identifies a previously unnoted form of hope: normative or interpersonal hope. When we place normative hope in people, we relate to them as responsible agents and aspire for them to overcome challenges arising from situation or character. Demonstrating that hope merits rigorous philosophical investigation, both in its own right and in virtue of what it reveals about the nature of human emotion and motivation, the book offers an original, sustained look at a largely neglected topic in philosophy.

This introductory chapter provides the meaning and overview of psychological capital or PsyCap. After first providing the current perspective and need for PsyCap, attention is given to the ...
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This introductory chapter provides the meaning and overview of psychological capital or PsyCap. After first providing the current perspective and need for PsyCap, attention is given to the contributions of positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship (POS), and positive organizational behavior (POB). Particular emphasis is given to the POB definitional inclusion criteria of theory, research, measurement, “state-like” development, and performance impact. The balance of the chapter then introduces the criteria-meeting positive resource capacities of self-efficacy (confidence), hope, optimism, and resiliency and, when combined, the second-order, core construct of psychological capital. The concluding sections support psychological capital as a type of psychological resource theory, how it is measured and developed, and future directions for research and practice.Less

Introduction to Psychological Capital

Fred LuthansCarolyn M. YoussefBruce J. Avolio

Published in print: 2006-09-21

This introductory chapter provides the meaning and overview of psychological capital or PsyCap. After first providing the current perspective and need for PsyCap, attention is given to the contributions of positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship (POS), and positive organizational behavior (POB). Particular emphasis is given to the POB definitional inclusion criteria of theory, research, measurement, “state-like” development, and performance impact. The balance of the chapter then introduces the criteria-meeting positive resource capacities of self-efficacy (confidence), hope, optimism, and resiliency and, when combined, the second-order, core construct of psychological capital. The concluding sections support psychological capital as a type of psychological resource theory, how it is measured and developed, and future directions for research and practice.

This chapter discusses how an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on philanthropy emphasizes the confluence of self-interest, community service, and the virtues. Although all virtues contribute ...
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This chapter discusses how an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on philanthropy emphasizes the confluence of self-interest, community service, and the virtues. Although all virtues contribute to philanthropy, the chapter focuses on compassion, gratitude, hope, and justice. An integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective enables us to appreciate the confluence of morality and mental health in meaningful lives of service.Less

Community Service

Mike W. Martin

Published in print: 2006-05-25

This chapter discusses how an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective on philanthropy emphasizes the confluence of self-interest, community service, and the virtues. Although all virtues contribute to philanthropy, the chapter focuses on compassion, gratitude, hope, and justice. An integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective enables us to appreciate the confluence of morality and mental health in meaningful lives of service.

This chapter applies the various interpretive tools developed in the previous chapters to the question of the relationship between Berkeley's metaphysics and occasionalism. It is widely believed that ...
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This chapter applies the various interpretive tools developed in the previous chapters to the question of the relationship between Berkeley's metaphysics and occasionalism. It is widely believed that Berkeley's own views on human and divine agency imply a commitment to some form of occasionalism. This chapter makes plain just how deeply incompatible Berkeley's views and occasionalism are, and shows how difficult it is within Berkeley's metaphysics to raise the sort of problems that motivate occasionalism in the first place.Less

Agency and Occasionalism

John Russell Roberts

Published in print: 2007-04-01

This chapter applies the various interpretive tools developed in the previous chapters to the question of the relationship between Berkeley's metaphysics and occasionalism. It is widely believed that Berkeley's own views on human and divine agency imply a commitment to some form of occasionalism. This chapter makes plain just how deeply incompatible Berkeley's views and occasionalism are, and shows how difficult it is within Berkeley's metaphysics to raise the sort of problems that motivate occasionalism in the first place.

This chapter examines the relationship between the challenge of Receptive Ecumenism and psychoanalytic dynamics relating to the loss and reconfiguration of identity. The chapter begins with two brief ...
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This chapter examines the relationship between the challenge of Receptive Ecumenism and psychoanalytic dynamics relating to the loss and reconfiguration of identity. The chapter begins with two brief opening sections respectively indicating the relevance of psychoanalytic factors to matters of faith and introducing some methodological considerations. It then focuses on issues relating to the loss of meaning and the loss of identity before considering the character of ecclesial identity. These last three sections are organized in relation to the cardinal virtues of faith, hope, and love, respectively.Less

Geraldine Smyth, OP

Published in print: 2008-09-04

This chapter examines the relationship between the challenge of Receptive Ecumenism and psychoanalytic dynamics relating to the loss and reconfiguration of identity. The chapter begins with two brief opening sections respectively indicating the relevance of psychoanalytic factors to matters of faith and introducing some methodological considerations. It then focuses on issues relating to the loss of meaning and the loss of identity before considering the character of ecclesial identity. These last three sections are organized in relation to the cardinal virtues of faith, hope, and love, respectively.

This chapter identifies and reflects upon the organizational factors militating against receptive ecumenical learning within Roman Catholicism. It argues that Roman Catholicism has reached a plateau ...
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This chapter identifies and reflects upon the organizational factors militating against receptive ecumenical learning within Roman Catholicism. It argues that Roman Catholicism has reached a plateau on which it will be stuck for some time into the future. This may have been all right in the days when the world changed at a glacial rate, but today political, cultural, and social changes occur at light speed. The church can no longer take decades or centuries to respond to change. The future of the church and any programme of Receptive Ecumenism and Catholic Learning must be based on faith, hope, and love.Less

Organizational Factors Inhibiting Receptive Catholic Learning

Thomas J. Reese, SJ

Published in print: 2008-09-04

This chapter identifies and reflects upon the organizational factors militating against receptive ecumenical learning within Roman Catholicism. It argues that Roman Catholicism has reached a plateau on which it will be stuck for some time into the future. This may have been all right in the days when the world changed at a glacial rate, but today political, cultural, and social changes occur at light speed. The church can no longer take decades or centuries to respond to change. The future of the church and any programme of Receptive Ecumenism and Catholic Learning must be based on faith, hope, and love.

For both Thomas Aquinas and Joseph Albo, hope becomes a response to an outpouring of divine presence. This chapter considers the Jewish and Christian traditions from which Aquinas and Albo drew, and ...
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For both Thomas Aquinas and Joseph Albo, hope becomes a response to an outpouring of divine presence. This chapter considers the Jewish and Christian traditions from which Aquinas and Albo drew, and against which Benedict Spinoza, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche fought, on their own merits. It looks first at hope in the Hebrew Scriptures and in rabbinic Judaism and then in the New Testament and in Saint Augustine. Jewish hope, articulated in the Torah, prophets, and writings, and refracted through the rabbinic literature, is a complex and variegated concept. Jewish hope and biblical hope have to do both with what is termed ‘conserving hope’ as well as with emancipatory hope. This chapter also analyses the shape of hope in early Christianity, the balance between conservation and emancipation, endurance and transformation, private and public, mundane and extra-mundane, and contrasts this with Jewish formulations. It concludes that despite the differences, the underlying structure — the structure of hope as a virtue — is the same for both traditions.Less

The Faith of Hope

Alan Mittleman

Published in print: 2009-07-02

For both Thomas Aquinas and Joseph Albo, hope becomes a response to an outpouring of divine presence. This chapter considers the Jewish and Christian traditions from which Aquinas and Albo drew, and against which Benedict Spinoza, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche fought, on their own merits. It looks first at hope in the Hebrew Scriptures and in rabbinic Judaism and then in the New Testament and in Saint Augustine. Jewish hope, articulated in the Torah, prophets, and writings, and refracted through the rabbinic literature, is a complex and variegated concept. Jewish hope and biblical hope have to do both with what is termed ‘conserving hope’ as well as with emancipatory hope. This chapter also analyses the shape of hope in early Christianity, the balance between conservation and emancipation, endurance and transformation, private and public, mundane and extra-mundane, and contrasts this with Jewish formulations. It concludes that despite the differences, the underlying structure — the structure of hope as a virtue — is the same for both traditions.

Western theology has long regarded ‘Being’ as a category pre-eminently applicable to God, the supreme Being who is also the source of all existence. This idea was challenged in the later philosophy ...
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Western theology has long regarded ‘Being’ as a category pre-eminently applicable to God, the supreme Being who is also the source of all existence. This idea was challenged in the later philosophy of Martin Heidegger and identified with the position he called ‘onto-theology’. Heidegger's critique was repeated and radicalized in so-called postmodern thought, to the point that many theologians and philosophers of religion now want to talk instead of God as ‘beyond Being’ or ‘without Being’. Against this background, ‘God and Being’ attempts to look again at why the ideas of God and Being got associated in the first place and to investigate whether the critique of ontotheology really does require us to abandon this link. After exploring how this apparently abstract idea has informed Christian views of salvation and of the relationship between God and world, the book examines how such categories as time, space, language, human relationships and embodiment affect our understanding of God and Being. The conclusion is that whilst Heidegger's critique has considerable force, it remains legitimate to speak of God as Being under certain restricted conditions. The most important of these is that God is better conceived in terms of purely possible Being rather than (as in classic Christian theology) ‘actual’ Being. This leaves open possibilities of dialogue with, e.g., non-theistic religious traditions and with science that are foreclosed by traditional conceptions. Ultimately, however, all basic religious ideas must issue from and be seen to serve the requirements of embodied love.Less

God and Being : An Enquiry

George Pattison

Published in print: 2011-01-01

Western theology has long regarded ‘Being’ as a category pre-eminently applicable to God, the supreme Being who is also the source of all existence. This idea was challenged in the later philosophy of Martin Heidegger and identified with the position he called ‘onto-theology’. Heidegger's critique was repeated and radicalized in so-called postmodern thought, to the point that many theologians and philosophers of religion now want to talk instead of God as ‘beyond Being’ or ‘without Being’. Against this background, ‘God and Being’ attempts to look again at why the ideas of God and Being got associated in the first place and to investigate whether the critique of ontotheology really does require us to abandon this link. After exploring how this apparently abstract idea has informed Christian views of salvation and of the relationship between God and world, the book examines how such categories as time, space, language, human relationships and embodiment affect our understanding of God and Being. The conclusion is that whilst Heidegger's critique has considerable force, it remains legitimate to speak of God as Being under certain restricted conditions. The most important of these is that God is better conceived in terms of purely possible Being rather than (as in classic Christian theology) ‘actual’ Being. This leaves open possibilities of dialogue with, e.g., non-theistic religious traditions and with science that are foreclosed by traditional conceptions. Ultimately, however, all basic religious ideas must issue from and be seen to serve the requirements of embodied love.

This chapter considers one of Kafka's last stories, Der Bau (The Burrow, 1923–24). In the story, the tiny, foraging animal knows all too well that the protection of his day-to-day life demands ...
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This chapter considers one of Kafka's last stories, Der Bau (The Burrow, 1923–24). In the story, the tiny, foraging animal knows all too well that the protection of his day-to-day life demands constant awareness. Although he has completed the construction of what appears to be an impenetrable, inviolable refuge, he realizes that he can “scarcely pass an hour in complete tranquility.” In brief, Kafka's creature is terrified, and it is this terror that motivates all his cares. From the very opening sentence of Der Bau, Kafka immediately, albeit lightly, alludes to the necessary imperfection that riddles but also constitutes every security project: “Ich habe den Bau eingerichet und er scheint wohlgelungen” (I have constructed the burrow and it appears quite successful). Needless to say, what merely appears to be secure can never be entirely foolproof; and, in fact, for the remainder of Kafka's story, the subterranean creature wrestles with gnawing doubts and troubling concerns.Less

Handle with Care

John T. Hamilton

Published in print: 2013-05-05

This chapter considers one of Kafka's last stories, Der Bau (The Burrow, 1923–24). In the story, the tiny, foraging animal knows all too well that the protection of his day-to-day life demands constant awareness. Although he has completed the construction of what appears to be an impenetrable, inviolable refuge, he realizes that he can “scarcely pass an hour in complete tranquility.” In brief, Kafka's creature is terrified, and it is this terror that motivates all his cares. From the very opening sentence of Der Bau, Kafka immediately, albeit lightly, alludes to the necessary imperfection that riddles but also constitutes every security project: “Ich habe den Bau eingerichet und er scheint wohlgelungen” (I have constructed the burrow and it appears quite successful). Needless to say, what merely appears to be secure can never be entirely foolproof; and, in fact, for the remainder of Kafka's story, the subterranean creature wrestles with gnawing doubts and troubling concerns.